Railroad routing chart



Oct. 26, 1937. w, c, WERTENBRUCH 2,097,008

RAILROAD ROUTING CHART Filed June 22, 1936 4 Sheets-Sheet 1 W. C. WERTENBRUCH RAILROAD ROUTING CHART Filed June 22, 1936 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 i-Z j Oct. 26, 1937.

Filed June 22, 1936 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 L 5E2 J L :2 80 J cu. m PR3 [EL g0 l cccs CCCSL PK}? J 2&0. Z 6

Ii 5 14 7-6 g Fax 15/; m I g s 2 s2, H v nag M Patented Oct. 26, 1937 UNETED STATE PATENT OFFICE RAILROAD ROUTING CHART William C. Wertenbruch, Washington, D. 0.

Application June 22, 1936, Serial No. 86,701

7 Claims.

This invention relates to transportation routing systems and more particularly to a chart or series of companion charts designed to control the movements of railway traffic over a predetermined route.

Another object of the invention is the provision of a set of companion charts which, when bound together in book form, may be very conveniently used for selecting routes over which it is possible to transport goods from one point or city along a railroad to another.

It is another object of the invention to permit the charts to be used either individually or collectively and also to so arrange them that the possible routes between various cities or gateways of a railroad system will be connected by straight lines which can be very easily followed from one city to another.

It is another object of the invention to provide a set of charts wherein the lines indicating various possible routes between certain cities all extend substantially horizontally across a chart without respect to the geographical location of one city with respect to another.

While it has been stated that the charts are to be used by railroads, it is to be understood that they are not restricted to charting routes along railroads from one city to another but may also be used for charting transportation by roads, water, or air.

The invention is illustrated in the accompany ing drawings, wherein Figure 1 is a perspective view showing a set of charts of the improved construction open for use.

Figures 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 are views of successive pages or charts which are bound together in book form.

Figure 8 is a view of a group of charts of a .49 modified form.

' which will present to the user, not only individually but collectively in proper and logical correlation and sequence with other charts and also any part thereof with any other part contained 55 in the same or any other chart, routes from one with such other charts, devices or contrivances gateway to another within previously determined limitations.

A map will not suffice to present this information since a means must be provided whereby certain routes shown thereon would be available when routing is desired between certain points but where the same. routes cannot be used between certain other points. This requirement arising not only from a situation existing within a chart but in connection with situations not shown mation but is the discovery of a means, or apparatus, or an instrumentality by which specific information concerning routes may be presented in an economical and compact form.

The accompanying drawings illustrate an embodiment of theinvention for use as a routing guide by railroads and, therefore, the connecting lines between the various cities which are known as gateways have been designated as railroad lines, but, as previously stated, the invention is not confined to use by railroads and the lines between the various cities may designate highways, waterways, or airways. Any number of charts may be bound together, but in the present illustration, six sheets, each having a chart thereon, have been illustrated in Figures 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7. These'sheets have been individually designated by the numerals 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 and in the upper right hand corner portion of each sheet there has been provided a page indicating number, as shown at '7, in order that the sheets or pages may be correctly bound and easily located when use of the same is desired. A chart, designated in general by the numeral 8, is printed upon each page or sheet and attention is called to the fact that only one face of each sheet has a chart printed thereon- Therefore, a page or sheet may be turned, as shown in Figure. 1, and disposed in cooperating relation to a companion chart.

In preparing a set of charts for use by railroads, the charts are plotted in the following manner:

Having determined the various sections of the country in which it is desired to depict the fontings, I next select the important points at their extremities, these points being referred to as gateways, and construct a chart which will show all available routes between any two points falling within certain predetermined limitations. These gateways are for the purpose of providing entries, exits and connections with other sections. Thus between San Francisco, California, and New York city, New York, the logical routing would lie by way of the gateways, Ogden, Utah; Denver, Colorado; Omaha, Nebraska; Chicago, Illinois, and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. All the routes from San Francisco to New York will be termed a routing belt and important portions between the gateways as sections thereof. The gateways have been designated by abbreviations, the gateways at ends of each section of a routing belt being enclosed in a circle, as shown at 9, adjacent opposite ends of a sheet, and intermediate primary junctions being enclosed in squares, as shown at [0 in Figures 6 and '7. The gateway at the right hand end or free end of each sheet or chart corresponds to and is a duplicate of the gateway at the left hand end or bound end of a companion page or chart in the set, and referring to Figures 2 and 3, it will be seen that the gateway at the left hand end of the chart shown in Figure 2 bears the initials SF which is a contraction of San Francisco, while the gateway at the right hand end of this chart bears the letters OG which is a contraction of Ogden. Routing lines H representing railroads extend between the gateways in a horizontal direction longitudinally of the pages upon which the charts are drawn. Between Chicago and Pittsburgh, there have been shown twenty-eight routes, this number being made up by direct travel between Chicago and Pittsburgh and also by selected travel through the intermediate important cities or junctions Hi. One of these intermediate cities has been designated by the letters TO to indicate Toledo, another CL to indicate Cleveland, another IN to indicate Indianapolis, and another CO to indicate Columbuss Smaller towns and cities have also been represented by large dots I2 and names of these towns or cities are printed upon the charts over the dots, as shown at [3. From Pittsburgh to New York, transportation may be over seventyfive routes. Transportation may be either direct between Pittsburgh and New York or by way of the intermediate junctions, each of which bears letters constituting a contraction of its name. Smaller towns are indicated by the large dots l4 and the names of these towns are printed near the top of the sheet or page, as shown at l5. It will thus be seen that various routes have been shown in diagram between the gateways. Between San Francisco and Ogden, there have been shown two routes or railroads upon Figure 2 of the drawings. Figure 3 of the drawings indicates two routes between Ogden and Denver and by multiplying the two routes between San Francisco and Ogden by two, it produces four routes between San Francisco and Denver. Four routes are shown upon page 3 of the chart in Figure 4 and by multiplying the four routes between San Francisco and Denver by four, there will be produced sixteen routes between San Francisco and Omaha. By multiplying the sixteen routes between San Franscisco and Omaha by six, which is the number of routes between Omaha and Chicago, there will be produced ninety-six routes between San Francisco and Chicago. When this is multipled by twenty-eight, which is the number of possible routes between Chicago and Pittsburgh, as shown on page 5 of the chart in Figure 6, the result is two thousand, six hundred and eighty-eight routes between San Francisco and Pittsburgh, and when this number of routes is multiplied by seventy-five, which is the number shown on page 6 of the chart in Figure '7, the result is two hundred and one thousand, six hundred routes which may be selected between San Francisco and New York. It is customary and the only means now provided consists in printing all the information for each route in books or socalled tariffs which showthis information for each route in a separate line of type matter. An example would be the route from San Francisco to New York, as follows: Southern Pacific R. R. to Ogden, Utah; Union Pacific R. R. to Denver, Colorado; Union Pacific R. R. to Omaha, Nebraska; Chicago and North Western R. R. to Chicago, Illinois; Pennsylvania R. R. to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Baltimore 8: Ohio R. R. to New York. These now average fifty routes to a page. By the use of my invention the six charts described herein present to the user over 200,000 different routes between two points. Between the intermediate points many more are possible. This results in a thick book even when printed in small type, and when printed in small type it is hard to read. It should also be noted that when ever routes are changed, new books must be printed, whereas by charting the routes in accordance with this invention, reprinting of an entire set of charts may be done at small cost or by binding the set of charts in a loose leaf binder, only those charts in which changes have been made need be reprinted and the new charts substituted in place of those previously used. In view of the fact that these charts take the place of the routes printed in the ofiicial tariff containing the rates to be charged for shipping material from one place to another, these books will be greatly reduced in thickness which makes them easier to handle and also cheaper to print.

When the set of charts is in use and it is desired to plot a route between San Francisco and New York, or any one of the gateways between San Francisco and New York, the route is traced from San Francisco to Ogden over a selected one of the two routes shown upon the first chart illustrated in Figure 2. This page is then turned until its free end is in slight overlapping relation to the bound end of the second chart and a route selected between Ogden and Denver, after which the first chart is flattened and the second chart folded to dispose its free end slightly over the bound end of the third chart, as shown in Figure 1, and a route selected between Denver and Omaha. In view of the fact that the gate- Way at the free end of the page containing the second chart is designated to indicate Denver and the gateway adjacent the bound end of the third chart is also designated to indicate Denver, there will be no danger of accidentally turning two pages by mistake and thus failing to properly plot the route between certain of the intermediate junctions. The plotting of the route is continued from one chart to the next chart and it can be very easily determined what railroad a shipment of material will have to travel over in order to effect movement over tariff routes from one city to another. It will also be possible to deter mine whether stop offs may be effected at desired towns or cities.

In Figure 8 there has been shown a slightly modified arrangement of charts. In this embodiment of the invention, there have been shown fourcharts designated by the numerals 16, 1'7, 18 and 19. One of the charts has been shown provided adjacent the free end of the page or sheet 16 with a gateway 20 and upper and lower gateways 2| and 22. A routing line 23 leads to the gateway 20 and branch lines 24 and 25 lead from the routing line 23 to the gateways 2| and 22, respectively.- The pages 17, 18, and 19 have charts printed thereon in which the routing lines 26, 2"! and 28 lead from gateways .20, 2| and 22' adjacent the bound ends of the pages. These charts 1'7, 18 and 19 indicate routes which may be taken from a gateway, such as Pittsburgh, to three different terminal cities. To illustrate the use which this device would serve, reference is had to chart 16 which could show all the routes to the three gateways 20, 2| and 22 which are Buffalo, New York, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and Kenova, West Virginia, respectively, from a point such as Chicago, Illinois; chart 18 could show the routes running from the gateway Buffalo 2! to such a terminal as Boston, Massachusetts; chart 17 would show the routes from the Pittsburgh gateway 20' to the New York terminal, while chart 19 would show the routes from Kenova gateway 22' to Norfolk, Virginia. If the route to be followed from Chicago, is to New York, the page 16 will be turned and the gateway 20 placed opposite the gateway 26'. If the route from Chicago is to be to Boston, the page 16 and any intervening pages between this page and the page 18 will be turned together and the terminal 2i disposed opposite the gateway 2|. If the route from Chicago is to be to Norfolk, the page 16 and any intervening pages between this page and the page 19 will be turned as a unit and the page 16 disposed in overlapping relation to the page 19 with the gateway 22 opposite the gateway 22'. In view of the fact that the gateway 20 is located midway the upper and lower edges of the page 17, this page can only have its gateway 20' alined with the gateway 20 of the page 16. In like manner, the gateway 2| can only be alined with the gateway 2| of the page 16 as it is near the upper edge of the page and the gateway 22' can only be alined with the gateway 22 of the page 16 as this gateway 22 is near the lower edge of the page 19. It will thus be seen that when it is desired to plot a route from Chicago to a predetermined one of three terminal gateways, a mistake cannot be made as the gateways 20, 2| and 22 will only be properly alined with the gateways 20', 2| and 22', respectively.

The purpose of such a device as is explained in Figure 8 arises from the necessity of showing as illustrated on chart 16, in certain instances, all the routes from Chicago to the three gateways, Buffalo, Pittsburgh and Kenova which can be used interchangeably with routes running beyond these three gateways. The routes, however, running from the Buffalo gateway may not be used interchangeably since the use of the routes running therefrom are restricted only to Boston. Similarly from the other two gateways shown in charts 1'7 and 19, the routes are restricted respectively to New York and Norfolk. Such an arrangement is necessary since the routes shown, for instance from Pittsburgh, would be the logical routes to New York. They would, however, not form logical routes to Norfolk and neither Would New York be an intermediate point on the routes to Norfolk. By showing on chart 16 another gateway, the routes from Chicago shown thereon can be brought into juxtaposition with chart 19 upon which the logical routes to Norfolk are found running from the Kenova gateway.

From the foregoing description, it is thought that the construction and mode of operating the invention, what is railway traflic comprising a plurality of leaves each bearing indicia representing a portion of a complete predetermined tariff route between certain points, each leaf having symbols thereon representing terminals of the adjacent tariff route, said symbols being so arranged on the respective leaves that, when one leaf is disposed in juxta-position to another leaf with the adjacent terminals in registration, the continuity of the portions of the tariff route depicted upon the leaves will be complete.

2. Means for controlling the movements of railway traflic comprising a plurality of leaves each having lines thereon representing portions of a complete predetermined tariff route between certain points, each leaf having its opposite ends provided with symbols representing terminals of the adjacent tariff route, the symbols being so arranged on the respective leaves that, when one leaf is disposed in juXta-position to another leaf with the adjacent terminals in registration, the continuity of the portions of the tariff route depicted upon the leaves will be complete.

3. Means for controlling the movements of railway traffic comprising. a plurality of leaves bound in book form and each leaf having spaced lines thereon representing portions of a complete predetermined tariff route between certain points, each leaf having symbols thereon representing terminals of the adjacent tariff route, said symbols being so arranged on the respective leaves that, when the free end of one leaf is disposed in juxta-position to the fixed end of another leaf with the adjacent terminals in registration, the continuity of the portions of the tariff route depicted upon the leaves will be complete.

4. Means for controlling the movements of lapping relation to the bound end portion of another leaf, each leaf having terminal-designating means thereon and route-indicating means connecting the same, the said terminal-designating means being located in co-related positions upon the said leaves whereby when one leaf is folded to dispose its free end portion in overlapping relation to the bound end portion of another leaf, the terminal-designating means of the two leaves will be substantially in registering relation to each other and the routing means may be accurately followed from one leaf to the other leaf.

5. Means for controlling the movements of railway traffic comprising a plurality of leaves stacked and bound together at one end, the said leaves being formed of flexible material whereby a leaf may be folded to dispose its free end in overlapping relation to the bound end of another leaf, each leaf bearing indicia representing a portion of a complete predetermined tariff route between certain points and including terminalis folded to dispose its free end portion 'in overlapping relation to the bound end of another leaf, terminal-indicating means of the two leaves will be substantially in registering relation to each other and the routing means may be followed from one leaf to the other leaf. 7

6. Means for controlling the movements of railway trafiic comprising a plurality of leaves bound to each other at one end in book form, said leaves consisting of flexible sheets whereby a leaf may be folded from its free end back upon itself to dispose its free end in overlapping relation to the bound end of another leaf, each leaf bearing indicia representing a complete predetermined tariff route between certain points and including terminal-indicating symbols adjacent the bound and free ends of the leaf and routeindicating means extending along said leaf and connecting said terminal-indicating symbols, one of said leaves having a plurality of terminalindicating symbols adjacent its free end spaced from each other between upper and lower side edges of the leaf and other leaves each having a terminal-indicating symbol adjacent its bound end disposed in a predetermined position between upper and lower edges of the leaf corresponding to the location of a selected one of the terminal-indicating symbols adjacent the free end of the first-mentioned leaf whereby when the first leaf is folded to dispose its free end portion in overlapping relation to the bound end portion of a selected one of the second-mentioned leaves, a selected terminal-indicating symbol at the free end of the overlapping leaf can only be disposed in registering relation to a correspondingly located terminal-indicating symbol of one of the second-mentioned leaves.

7. Means for controlling the movements 0f railway traffic comprising a plurality of leaves having indicia thereon cooperating to depict a complete route between terminals of the route and each depicting a complete portion of the said route, each leaf having terminal-indicating symbols at its ends and route-indicating means extending between its terminal-indicating symbols to indicate available paths of travel in a continuing direction between the terminal-indicating symbols, and each leaf having the terminal-indicating symbol at one of its ends duplicated by a terminal-indicating symbol at an end of a companion leaf.

WILLIAM C. WERTENBRUCI -I. 

